"But, Captain," he besought, "will you not allow the lieutenant - "
Mr. Butler cut him short. "Duty," said he sententiously, "is duty.
Be off, O'Rourke."
And O'Rourke, clicking his heels viciously, saluted and departed.
Came presently the bottles in a basket - not one, as Souza had said,
but three; and when the first was done Butler reflected that since
O'Rourke and the cattle were already well upon the road there need
no longer be any hurry about his own departure. A herd of bullocks
does not travel very quickly, and even with a few hours' start in
a forty-mile journey is easily over-taken by a troop of horse
travelling without encumbrance.
You understand, then, how easily our lieutenant yielded himself to
the luxurious circumstances, and disposed himself to savour the
second bottle of that nectar distilled from the very sunshine of
the Douro -- the phrase is his own. The steward produced a box
of very choice cigars, and although the lieutenant was not an
habitual smoker, he permitted himself on this exceptional occasion
to be further tempted. Stretched in a deep chair beside the
roaring fire of pine logs, he sipped and smoked and drowsed away
the greater par of that wintry afternoon.
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